The House Votes to Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell 250-175! Keep the pressure on the Senate.

The House Votes to Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell 250-175! Keep the
pressure on the Senate. Many of the debate arguments from House
Republicans against repeal were extremely offensive, false, hateful,
and homophobic.

House votes to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'
By Ed O'Keefe
House lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday to end the "don't ask, don't
tell" law, giving new momentum to an effort backed by President Obama,
Pentagon leaders and gay rights activists to end the ban on gays
serving openly in the military this year.

The House voted 250 to 175 to repeal the 17-year Defense Department
law that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in uniform. The
75-vote margin was wider than a similar vote in May. Fifteen
Republicans voted for the bill while 15 Democrats opposed it.

Wednesday's vote sends the bill back to the Senate, where a vote will
not occur until next week at the earliest, if at all, according to
Senate aides.

The bill's language originally appeared in an 800-page defense
authorization bill passed by the House in May. But the bill failed a
procedural vote in the Senate last week, requiring the House to vote
again on a new measure to end the ban.

Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)
introduced the new bill last week, believing it will earn broader
Republican support after the Senate completes consideration of the New
START Treaty and government spending.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Wednesday she would join Republican
colleagues Scott Brown (Mass.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in voting
to end the ban if the Senate votes again on the bill.

The House voted first on the new bill because its cosponsors, Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) believed
doing so would allow the Senate to consider it more quickly as a
privileged resolution requiring fewer days of debate.

"It's time to end a policy of official discrimination that has cost
America the service of some 13,500 men and women who wore our uniform
with honor," Hoyer said Wednesday. "It's time to stop throwing away
their service -- their willingness to die for our country -- because
of who they are."

Most House Republicans opposed Wednesday's vote. In a conversation
with reporters before the vote, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif), who is
slated to chair the House Armed Services Committee in the next
Congress, said Democrats "were more concerned about 'don't ask don't
tell,' I believe, than about the military and about carrying out our
responsibilities for those who are laying their lives on the line
every day to protect us. That's a bad system."

In a bit of levity, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) later echoed McKeon's
sentiments on the House floor: "Maybe that's why our approval ratings
are somewhere between used car salesman and embezzler," he said. (A
record low 13 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is
doing, according to a Gallup Poll survey released Wednesday.)

A new version of the defense bill without language ending "don't ask,
don't tell" is expected to come up for a vote in the House later this
week.

In a joint statement, gay rights groups pushing to end the ban cheered
Wednesday's vote, saying it "provides another resounding indication
that 'don't ask, don't tell' can and should be repealed legislatively
this year." The groups, ranging from the liberal Center for American
Progress to the pro-gay Log Cabin Republicans, plan to lobby the
Senate this week to vote on the new bill.

Forty-seven senators are cosponsoring the bill, including Senate
Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). He is not expected to schedule
a vote on it until next week at the earliest, a spokeswoman said.

More:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/12/house_votes_to_repeal_dont_ask.html

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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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